Re: A Great Speech Well Delivered

["Henry C.K. Liu" <hliu@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Great speeches more often lead to wars than peace.  Lincoln's "a house
divided cannot stand" was an apology for slavery.

Bush's speech contains some very problematic and indeed dangerous
utterances:

"Al Qaeda is to terror what the Mafia is to crime."
Now, officially, the US government does not recognize the existence of
the Mafia.  It is regarded by Italian Americans as a derogatory term.
The PC term is organized crime.

Bush made "demands" that "are not open to negotiation or discussion."  A
wise leader would tell the terrorists, whoever they finally turn out to
be, that there are more effective ways to address their grievance
against the US, that dialogue and negotiation would lead to mutually
satisfactory solutions. This is the position the US itself takes when
other nations are under terrorist attack, be it Israel, Britain or any
other of the numerous countries suffering from terrorism.  It is
particularly disturbing when the demands made by Bush are mostly likely
not deliverable by any self-respecting government.

Bush declares: "Every nation in every region now has a decision to
make.  Either you are with us or you are with the terrorists."

This is such a broad stroke that Bush is actually delivering allies to
the suspected terrorists.  There are many governments who may not  be
opposed to the US per se, but who would resist US demand to override
national sovereignty issues.  Does this mean that those who do not agree
with the appropriateness of US responses are considered by the US as
supportive of terrorism and be regarded by the US as "hostile regimes"?

He did end positively:  "We will meet violence with patient justice."
Lets hope the last words count.

Henry C.K. Liu

John Gelles wrote:

>             Consistent with all my recent Pkt posts, the President
>             gave one of the best speeches by a president in living
>             memory. You will have to go back to FDR and Lincoln
>             for fair comparison.
>
>             To implement its promise radical money system reform
>             is necessary -- let us pray he initiates that reform.
>
>             The subtext and recent events suggest Russia is on
>             board.  I pray we will not short change China -- unless
>             we deal fairly with China on Taiwan, the full promise of
>             the speech will be at greater risk than necessary.
>
>                 John Gelles